Action Center

Speaking out to hold our leaders accountable and let them know the public is watching is vital to participatory democracy. The progressive movement and the fight to defend the American Way depend on the grassroots engagement of everyday Americans. When we speak en masse with petitions, phone calls, rallies, and other actions, our individual voices are amplified, and decision makers from elected officials to CEOs take notice.

Two Trump nominees, Steven Grasz and Mark Norris, with very troubling anti-LGBTQ backgrounds are scheduled for a vote TOMORROW and senators must do everything in their power to stop them. Grasz also has the rare distinction of a "unanimously unqualified" rating from the American Bar Association.
Grasz has written that lower courts don’t need to always respect precedent (which could be applied to cases like overturning Roe v. Wade), he led an effort to outlaw late-term abortions in Nebraska, and served on the board of an affiliate of anti-LGBTQ hate-group Focus on the Family.
And Mark Norris has a similarly anti-LGBTQ background when he served as a state legislator in Tennessee. He supported A state law to nullify Nashville’s anti-discrimination ordinance. He and other legislators tried to intervene in a lesbian couple’s divorce proceeding so that they wouldn’t be treated the same way as opposite-sex couples under the law. And he tried to stop Syrian refugees fleeing violence and war from resettling in Tennessee. All of these actions make it clear that he would not be an unbiased judge that would protect the rights of everyone in Tennessee.
Tell Senators to do everything they can to stop Grasz and Norris!

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley announced he was going to move forward with scheduling a hearing for an extreme Trump judicial nominee -- one who is on Trump’s list for possible Supreme Court justices -- despite the fact that he has not received approval from both home-state senators for going forward. Obliterating more than 100 years of Senate traditions, and in the face of his own promises not to do so, he has now scheduled the hearing for judicial nominee David Stras for next Wednesday.
Stras is one of the judges on Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court nominees – and a commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade is a requirement for anyone on that list. As a state Supreme Court justice, David Stras has ruled against the rights of children with disabilities, sexual assault survivors, and workers discriminated against on the job. He is absolutely the wrong choice for a lifetime seat on a federal court of appeals.
This move is outrageous -- demand Grassley and the SJC halt this hearing!

Both the House and Senate tax bills are a terrible deal for working families. The Republican tax scam would:
-Give massive cuts to corporations and a relative handful of the very top most wealthy families, including the elimination of the Estate Tax and the Alternative Minimum Tax
-Directly set up massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public education, and other vital programs
-Increase taxes on millions of middle-class taxpayers as well as people earning under $75,000 a year.
-Incentivize the offshoring of jobs via a specific tax giveaway to American companies with offshore subsidiaries
-Reduce giving to charities in the US by BILLIONS, through changes in the tax code
-Blow a massive hole in our national debt (as much a $1.5 trillion)
-Gut a key part of the Affordable Care Act, taking away health care from millions and driving premiums up across the board (Senate version)
-If this bill passes it will be disastrous for all Americans except for the very wealthiest and corporations.
Tell your members of Congress to STOP the GOP Tax Scam!

The bar for Trump’s judicial nominees is so low it might as well be on the floor. Last week Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Brett Talley, a Trump nominee who has only three years of experience practicing law, has never tried a case, and who was rated unanimously “not qualified” for a federal judgeship by the American Bar Association – their lowest rating.
Talley also omitted that his wife is the chief of staff for the White House counsel and who was recently questioned in the Mueller investigation when asked about potential conflicts of interest.
And Talley is also remarkably partisan for a judicial nominee. On his blog, Talley pledged support for the NRA and mocked gun control after the Sandy Hook massacre… he has retweeted Alex Jones’ conspiracy theory site Infowars (which infamously claimed that Sandy Hook was a hoax), and called for Hillary Clinton to be “locked up” (while referring to her as Hillary “Rotten” Clinton).
Tell Senators to vote no on this unqualified, hyper-partisan nominee!

Bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate that would take away Trump’s ability to have Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller fired with impunity.
Members of Congress of both parties and both chambers need to support this kind of vital legislation -- so necessary to preserving checks and balances -- in the face of a president with clear authoritarian leanings who is willing to lay waste to our democratic institutions.
Sign our petition now to let your members of Congress know immediately that they need to support legislation to protect the special prosecutor’s investigation!

Social media ads remain a gray area in our elections. In 2011, Facebook requested an advisory opinion from the Federal Election Commission on the issue, and to this day, the FEC remains deadlocked.
Now, the FEC has opened up a public comment period, requesting feedback on how to address paid online advertising, including on Facebook and Twitter.
Sign the petition below to submit an official comment to the FEC and demand that social media advertising relating to elections and advocacy disclose the same information as other forms of political advertising.

Full Senate votes on four partisan, far-right Trump nominees will be happening SOON. Senators need to hear from the grassroots now that they should strongly oppose these unacceptable Trump appeals court nominees.

Citizens United allowed an uncontrolled flood of dark money to enter and influence US elections. Since that decision, billions of dollars from unknown sources have shaped electoral outcomes across the country, damaging our democracy.
The DISCLOSE Act of 2017 addresses these issues by closing loopholes that allow foreign nationals and corporations to engage in election activities including making donations. It also requires organizations that spend money in elections to disclose any donor that gives more than $10,000 in an election cycle and to disclose transfers to other organizations made for the purposes of spending on elections. This bill will safeguard our democracy and put it back in the hands of everyday Americans -- so it needs to pass NOW.
Tell your Members of Congress to support the DISCLOSE Act of 2017 NOW!

Mitch McConnell has made comments that indicate his desire to eliminate the blue slip process, which allows home-state senators to block judicial nominees who are too extreme or partisan for the bench, as we know it. His contempt for the institution of the Senate is clear as he keeps chipping away at checks and balances and processes that protect constituents from extremism and cronyism in order to keep ramming through Donald Trump’s agenda.
The only way that McConnell can advance Trump’s agenda is by changing and destroying Senate rules and traditions. Senators from both sides of the aisle need to stand up to McConnell’s attacks on Senate checks and balances. Blue slips allow senators to be consulted about lifetime appointments to the federal bench in their home state, and act as a safeguard against extreme appointees who are unfit to serve.
Tell your senators: Resist McConnell’s agenda and protect blue slips!

Throughout Trump’s campaign for president and since he took his oath of office, he has relentlessly attacked the First Amendment right to freedom of the press. Whether barring publications (the Washington Post) from his events or constantly using inflammatory language like “crooked media” and “FAKE news”, the right to a free press is threatened like never before.
Trump recently told reporters “it is frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write” after an NBC scoop detailing Trump’s absurd request to increase the nuclear arsenal tenfold. And that threat was buttressed by his Twitter threat that their license to broadcast should be challenged.
And his incessant attacks on SportsCenter anchor Jemele Hill cannot go ignored – his administration has called for the journalist to be fired and over Twitter Trump has lobbed numerous attacks at her.
It is long past time for Congress to address this: tell your members of Congress to speak out in defense of the First Amendment right to freedom of the press!

Trump has taken great care to ensure that each of his nominees actively opposes the mission of the department they are appointed to. Eric Dreiband is no different -- Dreiband has been nominated to serve as the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the Department of Justice, yet he has built his career as an attorney supporting corporations over civil rights.
Dreiband is the wrong choice to lead the Civil Rights Division at DOJ. He a represented a corporation accused of discriminating against a Muslim woman. And he was part of the legal team that represented the University of North Carolina when they fought the Civil Rights Division's attempt to block North Carolina's infamous transgender discrimination law. Beyond his professional capacity, he has committed his personal time and energy to testify and speak out against protections for women, older workers, people of color, and LGBTQ Americans.
Urge your senators to OPPOSE Eric Dreiband for Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights!

Congressional Republicans are still trying to strip health care from millions of Americans -- this time targeting reproductive health and rights with an unconstitutional 20-week abortion ban. The bill would not just ban abortion at 20 weeks -- it would also penalize doctors who perform those abortions with up to five years in jail.
This threat against reproductive health is dire -- with Trump as president, if this bill passes the House and Senate it will be signed into law and impede women's abilities to access critical health care and make decisions about their own bodies.
Tell Congress: Reject the 20-week abortion ban NOW!

In a chilling move, the Justice Department served web hosting platform DreamHost with a warrant for 1.3 million IP addresses of visitors to the DisruptJ20 website. DisruptJ20 is the group that organized mass protests at Donald Trump's inauguration where over 200 activists were arrested.
Beyond the IP addresses of millions of visitors, the DOJ also wants DreamHost to hand over email content, photos, and contact information for thousands of these individuals. DreamHost is refusing to comply with this disturbing overreach.
The consequences of this action could be broad – Americans may be intimidated about exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech and protest if they think the government will collect their information and potentially put them on a watch list.
Demand the DOJ withdraw its warrant NOW!

Firing Stephen Miller is long overdue. As someone with a white nationalist ideology, he has no business being in the White House, writing policy, and crafting strategy. Miller is the rabidly anti-immigration architect of Trump's anti-Muslim ban, as well as an opponent of DACA.
With the escalation in hate crimes since Trump's election -- from sometimes fatal violence towards religious and racial minorities to appalling displays of white nationalism and out-of-control Nazi rallies -- it is clear that Miller does not belong in the White House. His continued presence legitimizes the hateful beliefs of the "Alt-Right", white supremacists, and neo-Nazis and he works on policy with Trump that is racist, anti-immigrant, and xenophobic.
Tell Trump: It's time for Miller to GO.

Republicans in Congress have been working feverishly to gather the votes for legislation that would repeal the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's new rule banning forced arbitration clauses -- and a vote could come very soon!
Forced arbitration clauses allow Wall Street banks and predatory financial institutions to block consumers from joining together in a class action lawsuit, denying ripped-off consumers their day in court. With the CEOs of Wells Fargo and Equifax set to testify soon, now is the time to get answers from them AND to block legislation that would let CEO’s like them off the hook
Americans deserve answers and accountability from the CEOs of companies that have played fast and loose with our money and data, not the rollback of important rules that protect us from being taken advantage of.
Tell Congress: Don't overturn the CFPB arbitration rule and turn your backs on American consumers!

Trump has nominated Jeff Mateer to the federal bench a rabidly anti-LGBTQ Texas lawyer who spoke at the 2015 "Kill the Gays Conference" and called transgender youth part of "Satan's plan."
If Mateer can be confirmed, then ANY nominee -- no matter how unfit, unethical, or unhinged -- can be confirmed … and Trump and the Radical Right will have a green light to run roughshod over our entire judicial branch.
This is an all-hands-on-deck emergency call to action to STOP this nomination in its tracks.
Allowing this nominee to proceed would cross the line of decency. Tell your senators to call for the Mateer nomination to be WITHDRAWN.

Close to the 51 votes they need to repeal Obamacare forever, Senate Republicans are preparing to introduce a new health care repeal bill worse than all those before it. Republicans in Congress have 12 days before their repeal attempts are dead altogether, and we need to make sure this bill does not pass in this window.
The bill is cruel and immoral, leaving millions without health coverage, and stripping others of options to pay for it. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office even announced that they do not have enough time to fully score the bill before the vote -- meaning that the people voting on it and the people impacted will not know the full scale of the damage it will inflict.
Demand your members of Congress REJECT Trumpcare!

Donald Trump announced that he was ending the DACA program effective six months from now, upending the lives of 800,000 young people. In doing so he is stooping even lower to satisfy his anti-immigrant and nativist supporters by attacking kids, and he is feeding the bigotry of his base.
Congress MUST stand against this devastating and immoral distruption to the lives of hundreds of thousands of immigrants by passing the DREAM Act of 2017 in the next six months. The DREAM Act provides a path to citizenship for DACA recipients and other young undocumented immigrants who graduate from US high schools and attend college, enter the workforce, or enlist in military programs.
Tell your Members of Congress to support the DREAM Act of 2017 NOW!

People For the American Way and PFAW’s African American Ministers In Action network are calling on Congress to hold Trump accountable for preaching hate from the White House.
US Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Bonnie Watson Coleman, and Pramila Jayapal are introducing a resolution to censure Donald Trump for refusing to condemn the KKK and Nazis, and for employing white nationalists -- like Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller, and Sebastian Gorka -- in his White House.
Sign the petition: Tell Congress to CENSURE President Trump now!